It's official.

OMG.

It's starting to hit me.

This is real.

I'm a bride.

I mean, Lord knows, I've been waiting as patiently as possible the past almost 30 years, and some days I started to lose hope that it would NEVER get here.... but now, it's here.

I'm a bride. And I'm actually planning a wedding, not just shooting one.

SO weird.

And I admit, it's a little stessful. Trying to run a wedding photography business on top of plan my own wedding on top of looking for a new home... all a tad bit overwhelming.

But what really made it feel REAL was when Stephen and I finally FINALLY nailed down a wedding date. There was a lot of back and forth back and forth, but, drum roll please..... our wedding date is..............

APRIL 16, 2011!!!

You want to know something ironic about that date?

When I was 15, I had my first kiss on April 16, 1996 to a boy named Steve. And now here I am 15 years later marrying a Stephen on April 16, 2011. Funny how things happen that way!

Stephen and I are excited to have secured a few vendors now that we have finalized a date. Other than figuring out the date, the other truly hard decision to make was WHO IN THE WORLD IS GOING TO BE OUR PHOTOGRAPHER?

We have so many amazing photography friends, and it was soooo hard to decide who to go with. But after much praying about it, Stephen and I have chosen..........

The Amazing Zach and Jody Gray out of Nashville!



We me them at last year's Pictage PartnerCon and were blown away not only by their work, but the amazing people they are. We became good friends with them and are super excited to have them be the ones to document our beautiful day. Not to mention, we were super humbled to hear that "our" photographers were just recently published in People magazine for shooting Vince Gill's daughter's wedding. I gotta brag for them and show off this photo from their blog!



The next vendor I've lined up, that without a doubt I knew from the moment I met her would be my wedding planner, is the Fabulous Terrica of Cocktails & Details.



When I was first starting out as a photographer, Terrica and I began emailing and instantly connected for our love of all things fabulous. She has since become a good friend (above we are pictured at the Southern Weddings launch party!) and she coordinated a few weddings we worked together. I'm super excited to see how she works her magic with all the hot pink details on my wedding day!

The next hard decision was choosing a cinematographer. With Stephen and I both having a background in filming wedding videos, we know how equally valuable a cinematographer is on the wedding in addition to a photographer. And again, I know so many great cinematographers that I've worked with, so how would I ever decide? After reviewing a lot of wedding films, and totally crying watching them as I imagined my day, we finally decided on a company we both adore based out of San Diego, California. Their name is Fortyonetwenty based on the bible verse Isaiah 41:20 which we thought was super cool.



They also have a background in graphic design, which I do too, so I really connected with their branding as much as their amazing wedding videos! They are actually shooting a wedding Stephen and I are shooting this weekend here in Coronado, Ca., so we're excited to work with them and then have them film OUR wedding in April!

Definitely check out their wedding films! A-mazing!

It's so exciting getting things in place for our wedding and moving forward one baby step at a time. Even though April is 9 months away, everyone keeps telling us it will fly by and be here before we know it. Let the countdown begin! :-)